# Why do you think America dominates the sports world? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 5, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839 "2011-05-05T15:02:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/121 "2011-05-06T23:44:52Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Nice stat. 🙂 > > Given how much importance the OP places in masculinity in sport, I’m sure he’ll agree Rugby is more of a man’s game than American Football. In evidence, I give you [Wayne Shelford](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Shelford), a former All Blacks (New Zealand) captain. In a match against France in 1986, he got stuck at the bottom of a ruck. As a result he lost 4 teeth and had his scrotum ripped open, with one testicle hanging out. He got the physio to stitch him up at the side of the pitch, then returned to the field of play. Yeah, I’m sure one half testicled man is gonna convince the OP of the towering masculinity of rugby :). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/122 "2011-05-06T23:50:48Z")
Does anyone else find it funny that “Rondembo” sounds like the name of a Brazilian soccer player? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/123 "2011-05-07T08:18:23Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Does anyone else find it funny that “Rondembo” sounds like the name of a Brazilian soccer player? I didn’t, but I do now! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/124 "2011-05-07T13:47:11Z")
[Here is his “banned” thread if you didn’t see it. It confirms he and penguin were not the same person, even though they were…well exactly the same only with the opposite stance on “Uh-Merika”.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=607525) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![seysearles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@seysearles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seysearles)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/125 "2011-10-25T05:13:15Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > Those sports don’t matter because Americans don’t care about them. Only sports that are important to the OP are sports which Americans care about (i.e. baseball, football, basketball, and hockey). Im pretty sure that the USA cares about the Olympics and im also pretty sure that if you analysed how much money and resources that it invested into the Olympics it would dwarf any other country bar perhaps China. If we look at [Olympic medals to population](http://www.medalspercapita.com/index.html) or you’ll find the USA ranked 44th or as [Olympic medals to GDP](http://www.medalspercapita.com/index.html) it languishes in a pathetic 75th place. You may find some anomalous results here with regard to countries with extremely low populations like The Bahamas skewing their ratio however in general you would find it hard to argue that the US outperforms countries like Australia with a population of 21million which is represented across the board in almost every sport (including amercian-centic ones) at a level far higher than would be expected statistically. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/126 "2011-10-25T07:21:39Z")
America certainly dominates in zombie sports. We have coach Romero to thank for that. He came as an unknown out of Carnegie-Melom back in '69 and we have never looked back. I know some people are going to point to Britain’s team in 2002 led by Danny Boyle, and how they are more athletic. That may be true, but they never had any teamwork. Under Romero, our zombies _swarm_, and a swarming defense is how you when games. It all goes to the final score. The American zombies have more true apocalypses than any other nation. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/127 "2011-10-28T08:34:29Z")
> [@carm](#): > > A far better question is: Why do the Australians dominate the sporting world? > > A country of only 20 million people, roughly the size of Texas or New York, less than half the size of England, half the size of France, etc. . and they are among the best in the world at: > > Cricket > Rugby > Athletics > Swimming > Golf > Tennis > > And all this despite the fact that the most popular sport by far is Australian Rules Football, which no other country plays. Well if we go down that road, how about New Zealand? We pretty regularly dominate sport and win world championships (RWC anyone?) despite being smaller than Sydney alone. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/128 "2011-10-28T11:24:00Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > from a CNN article > > “To put the audiences in perspective, the final for the 2008 European Championship, the world’s second-biggest soccer contest, boasted 166 million viewers (57 percent higher than the 2009 Super Bowl’s). About **287 million** people caught at least part of the game, compared with **162 million** for the Super Bowl, Alavy said.” … wait, so if I’m flipping through channels and zap through a sports event, or if it gets mentioned in the news and they connect direct, I count as “having watched it”? Does it also count if they just mention it in the news? Wow, I sure watch a lot more sports than I thought I did. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/129 "2011-10-28T14:18:01Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > … wait, so if I’m flipping through channels and zap through a sports event, or if it gets mentioned in the news and they connect direct, I count as “having watched it”? Does it also count if they just mention it in the news? Probably not, in either case. While the research techniques for determining TV viewership undoubtedly vary from country to country, at least in the US, you’d need to actually stay on the channel for a period of time (at least more than a few seconds) for it to really “count”. And, mention of the game on a news broadcast (even if they show a few clips of the game) almost certainly wouldn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Nuclearman1984](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@Nuclearman1984](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuclearman1984)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/130 "2012-07-15T17:37:56Z")
Let’s me share light on this topic and this popular misconception. After the collapse of the USSR the USA was the dominant figure in Olympics starting from 1996 to 2004 when the first position in the golds standing was taken over by china in the 2008 olympics. Many sports analysts predict tht china would take the first position in the medal standings at the upcoming 2012 olympics. Let’s talk about when the craze and spending on the sports field was at it’s highest(during the cold war). The USSR at seven of its nine appearances at the Summer Olympic Games, the team ranked first in the total number of medals won, it was second by this count on the other two. Similarly, the team was ranked first in the medal count seven times and second twice in nine appearances at the Winter Olympic Games. So clearly when there was extreme competition the USA at most held on the second position during olympics from 1952 to 1992…these facts clearly state USA is not the dominant sports country instead this dominance keeps shifting from period to period and is multipolar… and what the author of this thread says about USAs dominance in the respective sports of baseball, basketball, football(don’t confuse with soccer) is basically a sport which only America truly specializes and is not much popular at a world stage… ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839/131 "2012-07-15T21:19:07Z")
While you make good points I think they’ll fall on deaf ears - this thread is nearly a year old and the original poster has been banned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-think-america-dominates-the-sports-world/580839.md?page=6)